Mon, 09 Sep 1996

DNA, blood test findings link suspect to victim

JAKARTA (JP): DNA tests done on sperm found in the body of a murdered child and tissue samples from Siswanto, alias Robot, match, an expert at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital said on Saturday.

Robot, an alleged pedophile, is suspected in the killings of 10 boys.

The hospital's forensics expert, Abdul Mun'im Idris, told a police officer at the Central Jakarta police precinct that Siswanto's DNA matches the DNA found in the sperm left in the body of Asikin.

"The hospital is now recording the official test results, which will be sent in a report to the police precinct," the officer who asked for anonymity, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

The 32-year-old scavenger's blood and spittle were tested on Aug. 8 by the hospital laboratory to determine his blood and DNA types. The hospital also examined the sperm found in the body of Asikin, which was discovered on July 5.

Asikin, 14, was one of 10 boys believed to have been sodomized and murdered by Robot. Asikin and three other boys were killed in the Pondok Kopi area, East Jakarta. Four boys were killed in the defunct Kemayoran airport in Central Jakarta, while two others were killed in Kroya and Purwokerto, Central Java.

During preliminary interrogation, Robot admitted to having killed 12 boys, but police have found only 10 bodies.

Robot recently helped police re-enact the murders he allegedly committed in Central Jakarta.

Central Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Abubakar Nataprawira earlier said the results of the DNA and blood tests were needed to strengthen the charges against the suspect, even though he had made a confession.

"He has a strong memory. He remembers precisely the places where he committed the crimes and left the bodies of the children he said he had killed," Abubakar said.

Because the suspect's behavior is considered strange, the police have sent him for a psychiatric examination.

Psychiatric test

Siswanto's lawyer, Najab Khan, earlier told the Post that a psychiatric test will decide whether the suspect is in sound mental condition.

"I hope the result of the psychiatric test may reduce the penalty. How can a murderer honestly admitted his crimes?" Najab said recently.

Robot, who said he was sodomized when he was 11, claimed that he told his mother, Dariah, each time he had killed a boy.

Robot is now in the custody of the East Jakarta police. He is to help stage a reconstruction of the crimes he allegedly committed in East Jakarta.

Siswanto was arrested on July 27 in a railway station in Tegal, Central Java.

The suspect, who was born in Ketandan village, Batang regency in Central Java, has lived in a slum area at Gaplok market, Senen district, Central Jakarta, since he was six years old.

All of Robot's victims were street singers or shoeshine boys, aged between nine to 16 years. (jun)